With respect to steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) wells, SAGD technology may be applied to an oil reservoir to produce heavy crude oil and bitumen. A pair of generally horizontal wells may be drilled into the oil reservoir. Each well may be disposed a few meters apart. The upper well may be designated as an injector well, and the lower well may be designated as a producer well. High pressure steam may be continuously injected into the upper well to heat the oil adjacent to the injector well, and to reduce the viscosity of the oil. The heated oil is caused to drain into the lower producer well, where the heated oil is pumped out to produce oil.
With respect to SAGD wells, steam breakthrough refers to the entry of the steam into the producer well. If a sufficient amount of steam enters into the producer well, the steam may damage production equipment such as pumps that are used to pump the oil from the producer well, corrode the producer well, etc.